Blaming the West for Things Gone Wrong, Mr. Putin Sings an Old Tune

SOCHI, Russia — Vladimir Putin’s annual appearance before the Valdai “discussion club,” a gathering of international analysts and journalists who follow Russia, is his chance to sound off on a global stage. Last week, with sanctions and dropping oil prices choking Russia’s economy and stoking Mr. Putin’s anger, the predictable target was his bête noire, America.

“It looks like the so-called ‘winners’ of the Cold War are determined to have it all and reshape the world into a place that could better serve their interests alone” went one notable riff. “This is the behavior of the nouveau riche, who stumbled upon a great wealth — global leadership. Instead of managing it expertly and accurately, for their own benefit as well, they made a lot of blunders.”

What was not clear, however, was whether the Russian president was speaking to the foreigners or to the home audience, to which his act was televised. Accusing the United States of taking advantage of a “unipolar world” and meddling in all corners of the world has been his line since his first major blast at the United States at the 2007 Munich Conference on Security Policy.

But the further his standing has sunk in the West, most precipitously over the crisis in Ukraine, and the more he has talked tough to the United States, the higher his popularity has soared at home. Of late, his ratings have hovered in the high 80s.

What is hard to gauge listening to Mr. Putin is whether he really means to put the blame for all things wrong on the United States, or whether he is cynically using the old Soviet gimmick of projecting onto America and the West all the faults of which the U.S.S.R. itself was accused.

In Mr. Putin’s version of the Ukrainian crisis, for example, the United States was the instigator of the protests in Kiev that led to a “coup” against President Viktor Yanukovych and the subsequent fighting. One American participant told Mr. Putin she was hard put to recognize her country as the one he was describing.

What Mr. Putin clearly did believe, and what seemed most strongly to feed his rage, was that the United States refused to show him the respect he saw as his due as the leader of Russia, and Russia’s due by virtue of its might, expanse and history. On Ukraine, on Syria, and on other crises, he insisted, Russia’s sole interest was that “our position would also be taken into account, that we be treated with respect.” Several times more the word “uvazhenie,” respect, came up.

That is undoubtedly one source of the popularity Mr. Putin has achieved at home. Of course, it is not unusual for citizens of a state to rally around their leader when under attack. But Russia’s historic suspicion of the West has fed a high sensitivity to foreign opinion, even among those who strongly disagree with their rulers.

Projecting Russia’s sins onto the United States is an effective way of reassuring Russians that Western sanctions and accusations are hypocrisy, that Russia is not the pariah it is made out to be, and that the man in charge will not allow Russia to be trampled.

How long it can work is another question. Mr. Putin’s current term as president doesn’t run out until 2018, and he could go for another six-year term after that. But that is a long way off, and popularity is notoriously fickle in politics. The Russian economy was in the doldrums even before sanctions and sagging oil prices, and the Ukraine conflict shows no sign of ending soon. Bashing Washington can only go so far.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A30 of the New York edition with the headline: Blaming the West for Things Gone Wrong, Mr. Putin Sings an Old Tune. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe